Is it just me whose hair is curly when wet but straight when dry? I Iove my hair when it's wet, but it always dries straight. When my hair is wet, it gets really curly, but by the time it's dry, most, if not all, of my curls are gone.
Is my hair actually curly or straight?
Does this happen to anyone else?
Is there anything I can do to bring out the waves dry?
Is my hair too dry to hold a curl?
Or is it overconditioned?

Here's a bit of background information..
My hair is normal, maybe even thick..
I CO wash.. And it helps.. Maybe even more if I keep going.
I tried plopping and it'd probably work, but it takes HOURS for it to dry and of my hair is not completely dry, it goes straight again.
I do cold rinses last.. If that matters..
What helped me the most plus the CO washing is scrunching in more conditioner and using it as a leave in.. It gives my hair waves and wurls on a good day.. I got the idea from Healthy Curls: Quick and Easy Steps to Discovering Your Natural Texture, which brings out my curls, but I don't really wantto have to drown my hair in conditioner just to make my hair curly..
Anyways.. For now, my hair is kind of wavy swavy and wavier on a good day. But it could probably get even curlier, just not yet . So I'll just stick with CO washing and see how it goes..

-Have you tried using gels or mousses? Those with weaker curl patterns can benefit from lighter products to not weigh down the hair. Leaving in regular conditioner may be too heavy for you.
-Plopping probably would work well for you, and for the record most curly's hair takes hours to dry completely (I'm at about 4 hours on a good day). Diffusers help a LOT at encouraging curl and speeding up drying time.
-What's the weather like where you are? People with straighter hair notice more waves and curls when they're in humid areas (the beach anyone?) and that's probably a large determiner for you.
-Is your hair texture thin? (is an individual hair thin) It may lack the strength to hold up a curl.

Is it just me whose hair is curly when wet but straight when dry? I Iove my hair when it's wet, but it always dries straight...

Originally Posted by Keihs

Hi Keihs...

My hair is the same way. It took me 20 years to figure out how to finally unleash my wavies. I documented this in full in my first post to the boards.

I don't co-wash because it makes my hair greasy, but I have had lots of luck with everything I've been using (see my sig). I find that the epsom salt & water spritz is absolutely necessary in most of what I have experimented with so far, in addition to some sort of curl creme.

I use sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner, but I'm not completely cone-free/CG.

I've been pretty happy so far with what I've been doing, but continue to experiment a little here and there to see if I can find something even more powerful.

Oh...and I found part of the magic involved getting more layers in my hair to bring out the waves that were stronger under the top layer.

Hope this helps a little. Feel free to PM me if you want additional details. I'll get back to you when I can. Good luck!

Mine curls more as it dries but I have a daughter with hair exactly like you, we can wet and scrunch and it looks loosely curly but when it dries it's pretty much straight, the nice kind of straight with body and the ends turn up or down. It's great hair IMO. Hers is very thick (lots of hairs) but very fine (tiny skinny hairs).

Thanks for reading. For me, CO washing doesn't leave my hair greasy, feels just like shampoo actually, but not as dry, maybe even better, though I do miss the scent of my shampoo. Maybe I'll find a conditioner that smells like it, too. Sorry, off topic. Anyways, I live in California, but not the sunny beach day everyday area, mostly fog and sometimes sunny. Also, I'm not sure what the thickness of my individual strands are, but it's definitely not thin, so it's either normal or even thick. My hair is usually poofy, not flat, I don't think I have a lot of hair, but not too
few either. Maybe in between.

Is it just me whose hair is curly when wet but straight when dry? I Iove my hair when it's wet, but it always dries straight. When my hair is wet, it gets really curly, but by the time it's dry, most, if not all, of my curls are gone.
Is my hair actually curly or straight?
Does this happen to anyone else?
Is there anything I can do to bring out the waves dry?

Originally Posted by Keihs

Sounds like we have pretty similar hair! My waviness has greatly increased in the last few years since I've been co-washing, so definitely stick with that for a while.

My hair, if left to dry natural dries in a big swoopy yucky wave. What I have been doing for probably 10 years now is after I scrunch, I put in a big ol' jaw clip before I let go to secure the scrunch into place while I finish getting ready for the day and even while I dry my hair with a diffuser. There have been times when I've left my "Secured Scrunch" in too long and ended up with wayward kinks but have learned not to let it get too dry before removing them for the last few minutes. This REALLY helps the curls form to begin with and helps them stay since, at least for my thick hair, its own weight tends to pull the curls/waves out.

I put a leave-in & gel into my wet hair. scrunch some water out. scrunch with a t-shirt. scrunch with hand to secure with a few big jaw clips around my head. 3-4 usually does the trick.

Try it! ...especially since you say plopping seems to help; i think this is better! (but then, since I didnt know about plopping when I experimented with this, why wouldn't I?

I'll try it. It seems like all I do is scrunch but no matter how curly it gets my hair always dries straight. I've tried gel a couple times and my hair still dried straight hard or stringy barely-there waves. Maybe, I'm a bit too enthusiastic and get heavy handed or the gel doesn't work for my hair.. Will tell you how it goes after my next shower!

Sorry if I'm slow responding back to the board, but it's been a chaotic last 2 days for me.

The epsom salt spray I use is a fairly weak solution, and I don't find it to be drying at all, especially with how much conditioner goes on my head anytime I wash. I use 1 tsp epsom salt to 1 cup warm water. I have even tried adding in a single drop of lavender essential oil and that seems to work nice too. The lavender is surprisingly pretty strong. These were all recommendations I gleaned from a variety of other posts on the board. I find used in combination with a curl creme (Redken Ringlet 07 Curl Perfecting Lotion) that has a little hold to it, I get some good things happening. My original post to the board that documents my original discoveries is here:2A - First "Curly" success...

I've also had some luck using the epsom spray and also the Beyond the Zone Noodle Head Curl Boosting Spray (available at Sally's Beauty)....I have been using this combination for my 2nd Day Hair lately.

I also found that Aloe Vera Gel can also be useful instead of the curling creams/sprays. You might want to try experimenting with that too. It does nicely on 2nd Day Hair.

Best of luck with your experiments....I know very well how hard it is to come out of 'straight'ness.

I'm still pretty new in my 'waviness' and playing with some new things, but I am so glad to see there are others who seem to have hair similar in nature (straight, but lightly wavy) to mine.

Mines gets like that when I don't use gel.! Its annoying its like reallllllyyyyy pooofy but straight like you just blow dryed your hair but didn't flat iron it. Its hard to explain. Its like that right now!!!

I'm a stylist....the curly when wet and pouffy/straight when dry is pretty typical of a 2 ime. My hair is like that for sure. It's easily straightened but still has frizz to it (which I have learned to live with for the most part) but when I use gels or gellies the curl stays. I've managed to get the occasional 3A curl but for the most part I stick between 2B and 2C.

My hair was always described as having a "fragile" curl. Just about anything--and it was gone. I never used products until I started lurking on nc.com. When I look back to pictures of my stepson's wedding 8 years ago, I was barely curly (in July!) I've learned so much on nc.com. Now I use products/techniques that help my hair curl all year around. It's providing my hair with the moisture and protein that it needed, not washing every day, etc.

I'm trying gels, too when I feel like it. Right now, I'm using Herbal Essence Tousle Me Softly scrunching gel and I don't think it's helping much. I'm not sure if I'm a bit heavy handed (or a LOT) or if it's the actual gel. I try to use a little but I tend to get a bit overenthusiastic. I'm trying to change the timing (soaking wet, damp, over conditioner, dry) but my hair looks kind of stringy.. And maybe even less waves. Maybe it's too heavy and it's weighing my hair down. Any tips?